Will Microsoft re-introduce their “Family Sharing Plan”?

Xbox One had a rocky start with the announcement of a DRM locked console and then later Kinect being mandatory for it. Not all things were negative though as Microsoft’s “Family Sharing Plan” was one of the highlight of all the announcements. Microsoft’s Phil Harrison talks about exciting things to come to Xbox One after launch – so – could he be hinting at features like “Family Sharing Plan” making a come back?

Family Sharing Plan was a feature best suited for the DRM locked Xbox One. It allowed us to share our digital library with 10 of our friends or family members around the world. It was basically Steam Sharing but with the limit of 10 slots per account. The best part was that your entire digital library was available to all those users and they could download and play games from your library. There wasn’t much known about it. There were earlier rumors that it was restrictive and only allowed us to play the games for a few hours, like a timed demo. Will we ever see it return? Phil Harrison talked about some of their digital plans in a recent interview.

“We have incorporated some of the important benefits of disc-based games, mainly sharing and trading games, but that doesn’t dull or change our digital vision” says Phil Harrison in a recent interview to Edge. The conversation then continued to talk about the features Microsoft originally talked about and whether they will come back or not.

So all of the features that you originally announced, are they going to be coming back?

It’s all there – they’re all there now.

While Harrison doesn’t give a straight forward answer to this question, he does vaguely say that the original features are all there. Seeing Steam releasing their Sharing Plan after Microsoft retracted their own, it won’t be surprising to see Microsoft re-introduce similar feature at some point in the future.

What do you think of this statement? Do you think Family Sharing Plan ever has a chance of coming back? Do you want to see it come back? Let us know in the comments below.

I say MS should hold back on re implementing the family share plan in case they need it later. Right now Sony is riding high due to the nature of the internet. I personally say looking at each console as they are and from what they have presented using no dismissal tactics or support rumors and taking each company at their word and balancing it out with what has been shown and discussed The Xbox One is a better product than the Ps4.

MS hardest job will just be explaining to people just how much more of a device the X1 and what it does.

In order to explain you sometimes need something to highlight and take the stage on and family sharing could be one of those things. I say if MS sales are half that of Sonys by August of next year use family sharing as a booster or restore it either right before or right after HALO.